SAN FRANCISCO – A review of lung cancer cases in New York suggests that 2011 guidelines issued by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) have made little difference in addressing ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in lung cancer diagnosis. The review showed some progress; however, . The researchers also found a reduced incidence of lung cancer only in whites.
The guidelines call for CT screening for smokers aged 55-74 years that have a 30 pack-year history within the past 15 years and were based on a lung cancer screening trial showing that annual low-dose CT led to a 20% reduction in lung cancer deaths, compared with chest x-ray (N Eng J Med. 2011;365:395-409).
Nonwhites “aren’t always exposed to screening opportunities, and may be taken care of by providers who haven’t necessarily bought into screening or aren’t necessarily aware of it. So the downstream effects of the lack of access to screening hurts them doubly, because they’re diagnosed later and they also have disparities in access to treatment,” said Elizabeth David, MD, in an interview. Dr. David is an associate professor of surgery of University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She comoderated a session at the annual congress of the American College of Surgeons, where the research was presented.
The findings underscore the need to get the word out to primary care providers in all communities that catching lung cancer early can make all the difference to patients. “The more we can do to talk about lung cancer as a treatable disease and a cancer that can become a chronically managed medical problem for patients, rather than a death sentence, which it has the misperception of being, the more we can encourage people to seek treatment when they have a symptom, instead of being afraid and doing nothing,” said Dr. David.
The researchers considered metropolitan New York to be a good test case to examine the impact of the screening guidelines since it is socioeconomically and racially diverse. “New York presents a microcosm of what’s going on nationally in other urban areas,” said Tamar Nobel, MD, from Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, who presented the study.
The researchers analyzed records from the New York State Cancer Registry from the period 2008-201 and compared that with data from 2012-2015 (total, n = 18,284). The incidence of lung cancer declined among whites from the first period to the second, at an average annual percent change of –1.5% (95% confidence interval, –1.0% to –2.0%). A similar result was seen in Hispanics (–1.7%; 95% CI, –0.4% to –2.9%), but not among blacks (–1.2%; not significant). There was an increase among Asians/Pacific Islanders (+1.4%; 95% CI, 0.6% to 2.2%).
There were also inequalities when it came to the odds of a stage I diagnosis. Although the percentages increased in whites (+3.5%; 95% CI, 0.6%-6.4%) and blacks (+6.0%; 95% CI, 2.3%-9.7%), the median percentage was higher among whites (27.6% versus 18.2%; no overlap among 95% CIs; odds ratio, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.56-0.68). Hispanics and Asians/Pacific Islanders experienced no significant changes in their odds of a stage I diagnosis, and both groups remained significantly less likely than whites to be diagnosed with stage I disease (OR, 0.72 and 0.86, respectively, both significant).
No funding was disclosed. Dr. David and Dr. Nobel have no relevant financial disclosures.
SOURCE: Nobel T et al. ACS Clinical Congress 2019. Abstract, doi: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2019.08.607.